Apache Software Foundation Upgrades CloudStack to Top-Level Project

It's been a year since Citrix contributed its CloudStack open source cloud computing platform to the Apache Software Foundation. While OpenStack continues to grab a lot of the headlines in the open source cloud computing arena, it's worth remembering that Apache pledged to be a good steward of CloudStack, and Citrix has pointed out that its commercial CloudStack distribution is more advanced than OpenStack in terms of having lots of flourishing deployments.

Now, the Apache Software Foundation has announced that it has designated Apache CloudStack as a top-level project.  That means it will get the kind of focus and community love that Apache has successfully fostered for its server projects and other top projects, which have done so well.

According to the Apache announcement:

"The Apache Software Foundation (ASF), the all-volunteer developers, stewards, and incubators of nearly 150 Open Source projects and initiatives, today announced that Apache CloudStack has graduated from the Apache Incubator to become a Top-Level Project (TLP), signifying that the Project's community and products have been well-governed under the ASF's meritocratic process and principles."

"When CloudStack first became an Apache Incubator project, it was a well-established cloud management platform with a mature codebase," said Chip Childers, Vice President of Apache CloudStack. "Our work in the Incubator has focused on growing a really strong community around the code and establishing the governance practices expected of a top-level project within The Apache Software Foundation. Becoming a TLP is an important step in the project's evolution and growth. CloudStack had the advantage of having many long-term, large deployments which had proven the stability and scalability of the technology. This helped us concentrate on adopting the 'Apache Way' of governance, which is well understood and open, delivering so many great pieces of software over the years."

Indeed, a whole lot of people understimate how dominant Apache's server platforms remain. They're found in all kinds of enterprises and are well documented and supported. With Citrix evolving its commercial CloudStack platform and Apache on the case with the open source offering, good synergies should arise between developers.

"We believe that Infrastructure-as-a-Service is the next generation of IT infrastructure, and that people will demand open standards and open governance for such an important layer in their IT stack," added Childers, in his statement. "That is why having the CloudStack project meet the rigorous standards of ASF governance is so significant."

If you're following the CloudStack story, check out this post.  In it, I took note of some good points that Citrix has made about its actual experience facilitating cloud deployments, which is extensive. CloudPlatform, Citrix's product based on CloudStack, is used by more than 130 organizations, including BT, China Telecom, EVRY, IDCFrontier, KDDI, KT, and NTT Communications.